Copenhagen City of Cyclists – Excerpt from 8-80 Cities July E-Newsletter

I subscribe to the e-newsletter of 8-80 Cities, a great non-profit organization that I learned about from David Switzer of Long Branch. You can access the latest issue of the newsletter here. [Click on link in previous sentence to access the newsletter.]

In this post I will highlight an excerpt from one of the many great articles in the newsletter – an article about Copenhagen’s strategic planning for cycling as an integral part of city life.

Cycle super highways are good value

Photo is from 8-80 Cities July 2012 E-Newsletter

In the spring of 2012, Albertslundruten, Copenhagen’s first Cycle Super Highway was inaugurated as a test route of 17.5 km passing through the municipalities of Albertslund, Glostrup, Rødovre, Frederiksberg and Copenhagen. In total 28 Cycle Super Highways are planned, which together form a network of high-class bicycle commuter routes across 22 municipalities in the Capital Region.

An analysis of the socio-economic impact of the overall network of 28 Cycle Super Highways shows that over a 50-year period with an investment of just under DKK 1 billion, there is an expected economic gain to society of DKK 7.3 billion. This is equivalent to an internal rate of return on investment of 19%. The ministry of finance’s minimum requirement is 5% for infrastructure projects and compared with other investments in infrastructure, this is a very high return.

Especially the health benefits of the extra cycling are beneficial, as the people who cycle daily are expected to have a longer life expectancy on average. In addition, the increase in the number of people engaged in a more active form of transportation is expected to result in 34,000 less sick days per year.

Vimeo video – Copenhagen City of Cyclists

The above-noted excerpt from an 8-80 Cities newsletter article about cycling in Copenhagen has prompted me to locate an online video, Copenhagen City of Cyclists, which you can access here. [Click on link in previous sentence to access the video.]

It’s 3 minutes, 27 seconds long, which makes for easy viewing.

I’ve posted three videos to Vimeo of my own in recent years and look forward to posting many more.